A year after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympic Games the city is celebrating with a mass run, tightrope walkers, flags, ballroom dancers, trick bicyclists and flags.
At the same time a headline in the Toronto Star reads “we’re so lucky we lost the Olympics”. Toronto was a distant second to Beijing in the race for the 2008 Games. The Star’s Dave Perkins cites all the problems the city has had in the past year, including the recent garbage strike, (now settled) and pledges of $1.5 billion the municipal, provincial and federal governments made for Toronto’s waterfront development with or without the Olympics, which he says hasn’t happened yet.
But two of the four cities bidding to become the U.S. candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games are too busy this week-end to read that headline. A U.S. Olympic Committee evaluation group is now on a two-day visit to Houston and will be visiting San Francisco tomorrow and Monday to evaluate that city. The USOC team has completed its evaluations of Washington and New York.
IOC member Dick Pound, who lost the IOC presidency race around this time last year, said as soon as Beijing got into the race Toronto didn’t have a chance. For that some Toronto 2008 supporters called him a traitor.
And now he has another prediction. He says San Francisco, which could be the U.S. candidate, would be tough to beat, but Toronto would have a trump card. “You’d get all the advantages of America without the disadvantages of being in the U.S.A.”, he told the Star. He said, “I think that (Canada-U.S.A.) is a fight we ought to welcome”.
Meanwhile there’s a Vancouver 2010 Winter bid added to the mix. According to the Canadian Olympic Committee rules, Toronto officials cannot outwardly pursue the Games before a decision is made on the 2010 Games.
John Bitove, head of Toronto’s failed 2008 bid told the Star he’s been true to his word to Vancouver officials. “In fairness to Vancouver we have to wait and see what happens to them before anyone here even talks about 2012. He added that Vancouver had a “great shot” at winning.
According to the Star’s Jim Byers, Vancouver is seen as even money against Salzburg for the 2010 vote, which takes place next year. If Vancouver wins the 2010 Winter Olympics next year, Toronto won’t get back into the game for years to come, says the Star. But if the 2010 Games are in Europe, it would clearly be North America’s turn for 2012.
